Phone: 004420 7737 9520
Fax: N/A
Population Served: several thousand. My school library currently has around 550, but we are a new school and only have the first three grades. We will have 7 grades in total
Contact: Ellen Dutton
Title:
Email: ellen.dutton@evelyngraceacademy.org
Web Page: http://www.arkonline.org/
Country Preferred: United StatesReason for wanting a Sister Library Relationship: I decided I want to set up sister libraries in America for our different schools as we are heavily influenced by American Charter Schools. Also it will teach our students about other cultures, but also will show them there are similar people all across the world. We aim for the program to promote that reading is importany globally.
My school is Evelyn Grace Academy. We opened three years ago, but have just moved into our new building, designed by the award winning architect Zaha Hadid. You can read about the building here: http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/lifestyle/article-23889643-grace-academy-is-everything-a-school-should-be.do
Our school is in Brixton, a part of London usually associated with crime and poverty. However we aim to create the leaders of tomorrow by giving ever student the knowledge, self-belief and motivation to be successful in their learning, and not letting our students see their economic backgrounds as something that will hold them back.

We have a long school day, from 8 to 5, and allow the students to do 5 hours of sports a week and 3 hours of arts and drama. We have performed at various theatre and, entered sports competitions. We have been in lots of national newspapers and on television because of our beautiful building and our new approach to education. You can see some of our students talking about Barack Obama here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8xJS26nxHI
Every student must carry a book on them at all times, and they often do DEAR. For this reason the library is really popular. We carry a huge range of books, usually chosen from suggestions from students.

We would like to have a small pen pal program with the sister-school. Also displays around the school, the area, books set in and about the area. It would be great for librarians to swap information, such as most popular author, (one of ours is Darren Shan - Who is Irish and unknown in America). Also to recommend books set in the area or about the area? Students could also swap book reviews and we could even have a skype conversation eventually! My perfect library would also be an innercity library, maybe in New Orleans, New York, L.A or Texas? We are all really flexible, so please contact me if you are interested and let me know what you would like out of the partnership.
Several other ARK academies want to also be involved and have their own sister-libraries.
There is a full list of our open academies on our website.
At the moment I know that the Walworth academy and St Albans are keen to take part.
http://www.walworthacademy.org/http://www.stalbansacademy.org/

Please contact ellen.dutton@evelyngraceacademy.org and I will pass information on to our other academy librarians.
Last Updated: 12/1/10